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Meet the Register's Mike Kilen

Mike Kilen writes about Iowa and its people. As a senior writer at the Register since 2000, he’s traveled to all 99 counties, navigated most of its main streets and river channels, and isn’t even running for office. 515-284-8361; mkilen@dmreg.com; @mikekilen(Photo: The Register)Buy Photo

Mike Kilen writes about Iowa and its people. As a senior writer at the Register since 2000, he's traveled to all 99 counties, navigated most of its main streets and river channels, and isn't even running for office. 515-284-8361; mkilen@dmreg.com; @mikekilen

Why work for a newspaper? I am given the chance to help people tell their stories. Many of us have a hard time telling our own stories. But given the chance with a willing listener, most end up telling a story of drama or inspiration, of humor or folly, of love or heartbreak. By telling those stories, we learn much about each other and the place we live that is as meaningful as the hard news of the day.

Where did you grow up? I was raised in a small farm town in southern Minnesota near a town my great-grandfather founded in the 1800s. Our family moved to Spirit Lake when I was in high school and my parents still live in the Iowa Great Lakes area, where a love of outdoor leisure, dancing and partying is an act of citizenship.

What do you do when not working and where? I love to paddle my kayak, bicycle, hike, travel and read, which makes for great weekends in my favorite area – the driftless area of northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin, its scenic rolling terrain spared by the last glacial advance. It's quiet enough to read a novel and close enough to travel to the truly great assets of Iowa – its trails for bicycling and river paddling.

What's the funniest thing that's happened to you as a journalist? A farmer once told me that a wild pheasant often followed him around and even ran after his pickup like some kind of trained dog down the country lane. I didn't believe it. So when I went out to check on the story, I never laughed so hard. That pheasant ran after him like the wind.

What's the most memorable moment? As a young sportswriter in the 1980s, I covered a Bears-Vikings game. After the game in the Bears' locker room, famed quarterback Jim McMahon had on his movie-star sunglasses and was holding court with reporters while wide receiver Willie Gault was pushing a TV reporter, his camera smacking me in the head. While dazed and appearing way over my head, I felt a hand reach into my jacket pocket. I turned around and a smiling Walter Payton held up my keys. I've sat with homeless crack addicts in Nashville, with dying AIDS patients in Iowa City and with presidential candidates in small-town cafes. That moment with Walter Payton showed me early on that people of fame or with little were just people first. The greatest running back of all time knew I was feeling shaken and he made it OK by playfully picking my pocket.